


I can see that you're working things out

by AlexZorlok



Category: Chaos Walking - Patrick Ness
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Davy lives, Developing Friendships, Gen, No Dialogue, Post Monsters of Men, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-14
Updated: 2020-01-14
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:21:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,211
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21962758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlexZorlok/pseuds/AlexZorlok
Summary: Sometimes, Davy tries to joke. Viola assumes it's an attempt at a joke, anyway, by the way he looks at her expectedly, waiting for a reaction.Viola doesn't say anything.Davy turns away and mutters a 'whatever'.
Relationships: Todd Hewitt & Davy Prentiss Jr, Viola Eade & Davy Prentiss Jr, Viola Eade & Todd Hewitt
Comments: 4
Kudos: 16





	I can see that you're working things out

**Author's Note:**

> Because my friend has finished his round of reading, and we both have a lot of feelings.

The Pathways’ End, constructed by the Spackle, surrounded by the Spackle, surrounded by the Spackle Noise, all the imagery and feeling Viola still finds hard to comprehend, even with Ben explaining all about it; the Pathways’ end, in the depth of the Spackle camp they spent so long trying to keep the humans out of, and now it serves as a shelter, as the only hope for one of that kind and more— The world really has been changing, faster than Viola has been able to figure out, faster than she could connect the dots and understand, and it has all just been a big mess of moments, of one thing leading to another in a long confusing chain of fateful events, and pulling the strings, and everything changing, changing, changing, with only some optimism left to hope that some of those changes are for the better.

Now that it’s over, now that the war is _finally_ over, and they all have time to breath and think, Viola uses it, thinking, looking back and back, and then dreaming about the future when the night comes, and she uses that time to sleep, because that’s another gift for them all to use now, peaceful night of sleep, something Viola could brush off if she didn’t know they have _time_ — And time is something Viola’s learnt not to take for granted.

Todd’s ma’s book helps. Viola almost knows it by heart by now, could recite some paragraphs, if not chapters, out loud, about Todd’s bright eyes, and laugh, and hope, hope, hope. Viola traces the words with her fingers, taking them in, learning. The world Todd grew up in.

It’s easy to forget about her surroundings while she reads, her eyes leaving the book only to look at Todd, lifting just slightly from the pages and focusing on his eyes, looking up just often enough to always be aware that he’s here, he’s safe, almost, as safe as he can be and maybe, _maybe_ getting better. When she reads, while the faint sound of Todd’s Noise — or his heartbeat, or anything Todd at all — gets a wee bit louder, the other one gets as silent as he can possibly be with his man Noise rioting inside of him, and worrying, and wondering, while he himself keeps sparing second-long glances at Viola before his eyes go back to Todd as well.

Davy Prentiss Jr.

She hasn’t left the Pathways’ End since Todd was put here, but neither has he; another item in the chain that Viola had to try and figure out on the way. Ben said he can stay, that he trusts him, and Viola ain’t so sure, but Todd trusted him, too, and so he stays, and she lets him, and so it’s three of them, gathered in the middle of that Spackle circle, two of them awake, and the other not so much, but they wait, and they hope, and they barely talk, altho both of them talk to Todd. Viola sometimes talks to Ben, and Ben also talks to Davy, but that’s when Davy’s Noise turns this blueish-ly green color, and out loud he can only accept or decline or utter ‘thank you’s because he was relieved more than anything to find out that Ben is alive, but he still doesn’t know what to do about that.

Viola doesn’t speak to him, but his Noise reaches out to her, altho involuntarily, and it’s all _Todd,_ and sometimes it’s just full of random observation of a bored mind, and sometimes it’s full of sadness and yearning and devotion, and then it’s all _Todd_ again.

Sometimes, usually when Viola’s reading reaches the mention of Prentiss, or afterwards, his Noise circles and circles into the loop of thoughts about his pa, and there are some memories of his childhood, and the glimpse of what time they had in The Ask, and eventually it’s death, blood, death, and Viola wants to be angry, wants to be annoyed with him, but instead she looks at him, and he looks at her, and they nod at each other, waiting for his Noise to descend, and then she proceeds further.

It was something they came to agreement with with Ben: the fact that Todd needs company, that he can’t be left there alone; even so, even with Ben there, and with Bradley, with Lee and Wilf visiting occasionally, whenever they can, to check in and tell the news, Viola finds that maybe it’s good to have something more, something more that a company of Angharrad behind the entry, and the Spackle, and a faint presence of 1017 outside of the Pathways’ End, 1017 who she still doesn’t let in. Viola finds, maybe, that this company is something needed.

Davy's Noise fills the Pathways' End with loud feeling, and Viola feels as if he speaks her own mind out for her.

They don’t talk. Viola hears him talking to Todd on his own sometimes, all friendly insults and snarky comments that then fade as his face sinks, and then he whispers things like ‘we made it’, and ‘that’s an effing tragedy’, and a lot of things that to the core of em just mean ‘come back’. Then, sometimes, maybe when the sun is high up, and Todd’s Noise is unusually noisy, Davy tries to joke. Viola assumes it’s an attempt at a joke, anyway, by the way he looks at her expectandly, waiting for an answer. Viola doesn’t say anything. Davy turns away and mutters a ‘whatever’.

Then, Viola catches a picture, of three of them, something she’s already seen before, only now it’s Ben in the middle, with her and Todd and Davy under the sun, and there’s Angharrad, and Acorn on his four, and it’s like they’re a happy family, at once, for once not having to fight their way into tomorrow. It’s so sudden, like a glimpse, and Viola ain’t sure if she caught that in the centre of all of Davy’s Noise, or if it was something coming from her own head, but when she lifts it, eyes glancing across from her, Davy’s looking at her as well, and she thinks that maybe she’s finally ready to trust him.

The bullet wound on her stomach ain’t hurting no more, hasn’t been for a very long time, so long that sometimes she forgets it was ever there, forgets that there’s a cause of that sitting across from her on a Spackle-made chair, listening to her reading Todd’s ma’s book, and Viola almost thinks it could be a fun story to tell, someday, about how all of them have been shot, all thought the wound was so fatal they would never see the light of the the day again, nothing after the image of the world gone blurry, nothing after the ringing in the ears so loud it’s impossible to even comprehend what’s happening. Someday, knowing that the two of them got back on their feet just fine, hoping that the other one will do the same, because he has to, and there’s no other way around it, no other either of them would choose to believe.

Because as Viola thumbs through the pages, and Davy’s Noise quiets down, Todd’s Noise keeps getting louder and louder.


End file.
